"Illusion of Oblivion" (By Seeth)

(Reinterpretation of the Creepypasta: “Still Ill.”)

Today has been a heavy day. The constant cold weather of this time is not entirely to my liking, and my bed was not much help either. After closing my eyes, a street appeared before me covered by a very dense fog that shortened the view of what would be found in the distance. The temperature had not decreased or increased either. I began to walk following the cement trail that formed this lonely street, the little that the fog allowed to see were small leafless trees, and the sound was a light wind, along with the branches colliding with each other. There was no sign of any person or vehicle.

What little body heat I had left was slowly fading, but I didn't feel cold either. From one moment to the next, I realized that something, rather, someone, was watching me. The complete silence should allow me to hear some footsteps if I really wasn't alone, but I didn't hear anything. I had the feeling that this someone was so close, but at the same time so far away that he was disappearing among the old trees. For a few months now I have been having similar visions, it did not generate any feeling of surprise in me.

I have no idea how far I walked, but I was able to find a small bench, its condition revealed constant use, the paint was almost undone, and it had a fairly noticeable layer of dirt. I brushed off some of the dust and made myself comfortable. I looked up at the large forest that could be seen in the distance, I wondered how long it would take me to walk to get there. It was then that I felt a kind of sigh behind me, but I wasn't scared, rather, curiosity made me turn around without hesitation. There was no one there, but I heard a voice with a volume as if it were right in front of me: “I had so much to give you, if only you were able to remember why it started.” The alarm on my phone brought me out of that kind of dream. I stayed for a few seconds looking at the ceiling of my room, I had no idea what time it was.

Those moments staring at nothing could turn into hours, and the fact of having free time at this time of year only made it worse, I couldn't stop thinking about the meaning of having those dreams that were so similar to each other. I turned my gaze to the side, observing the state of my room. It already needed a deep cleaning. Many mismatched notebooks and papers with notes. I don't consider myself a messy person, it would even be unacceptable to me to have a place this disastrous a few months ago. While I was balancing to avoid tripping over things on the floor, I came across a box that I had ordered a few days ago, it contained a batch of cartridges for different consoles. I am what they call an amateur collector. Among all this clutter, I decided to grab one at random to see what I could let the time pass, and maybe it would help me momentarily forget what I've been dreaming about. The result was the first Mega Man game for the NES, I was reluctantly grateful that the console was already connected to one of the old televisions I own.

Once I turned on the console, I chose the level that I used to go first when I played this game, which was about this character called Cut Man. I had a little memorized the route to get to the end, since this was one of the many games that I revisited it from time to time. Upon reaching the boss room, Cut Man was supposed to be waiting for me to fight, but he wasn't present. Although I noticed something, in a corner, a passage had opened. I raised an eyebrow, as I had never witnessed that before in other times I had played.

This new path seemed endless, for a moment I thought about restarting since I blamed this on some failure in the cartridge, but what gave me reasons not to do so was that the volume of the music was decreasing as I progressed, which made me gave a signal that I wasn't in a loop, and that I was heading somewhere.

Finally I arrived at what seemed to be another large room, I must say I got a little chill from what was there. The entire bottom had been covered in deep rust, small pipes connected to the walls that leaked, but, above all, a head in the middle. He had an expression of agony, he was connected to the walls by what I guess were veins, and he didn't stop moving from one side to the other.

Its shape tried to resemble a real person, as if it were a photo included in the game, with its respective limitations. I was surprised at what I was seeing, I couldn't take my eyes off that head as it writhed, I didn't dare to get closer to see what would happen, instead, I realized that another path was ahead, which made me pass by. long to go there. A gate blocked my path, and next to it, a text box was displayed on the back of the screen. An all-too-familiar voice sample came from the television, with quality worthy of the console I was playing on.

“She waits…”

I was confused, it was certain that the game was modified, but that message was very ambiguous, and my curiosity led me to want to find an answer. Once the voice sample ended, an extra life bar appeared, and I realized it was time to face that thing. Next to the life bar, the name of the respective head appeared, it was called "hurt". In fact, it was accurate as it looked.

I didn't know his attack pattern, so I stayed cautious most of the time. Two small flashes were coming out of his empty eyes and once they grew in size, they were fired at me. Fortunately, I reacted quickly and was able to dodge both rays, which gave me room to hit back. I would be lying if I said that the difficulty was consistent with being the first boss you encounter, his way of attacking was very erratic, even when he was low on life he began to move in a more extreme way, as if he desperately wanted to touch me.

Thanks to being half accustomed to the movement of this game, I was able to defeat him. The head remained completely still. The hatch on the right opened, allowing me to pass through, once I set foot in the entrance, there was a fade to black.

I did not return to the level selection, but instead appeared in unknown territory. No enemies, no music, just a yellowish floor with signs of dirt. In the background some buildings could be seen, and as he advanced, small turrets appeared that did not fire.

After passing through a safe path, from one moment to the next a section of platforms appeared, which were decreasing in size. From one moment to the next, as if the game had encouraged me to let my guard down, a kind of darkness appeared from the left side that was slowly eating away at the level, which made me speed up my pace.

That kind of dark fog had an animation as it progressed, it even got to the point where the game slowed down. The number of platforms was decreasing considerably, I had to think quickly to calculate the jump, a single mistake, and that fog would reach me.

I finally reached the entrance to a huge building, pressed the A button to open a small hatch in front of me, and entered.

After a few moments in complete darkness, I appeared in what was supposedly the interior of a hospital, which little by little was transformed into another level of platforms, at the top small white fragments were falling that hurt me, I had to move forward cautiously.

Up ahead were some small robots that shot needles, and if I combined that with what fell from the ceiling, the journey became quite complicated.

Luckily the platforming section was over, and I was now on a flat path with multiple closed doors next to each other.

Further ahead was one that was half open, out of curiosity I approached to interact, and a kind of animation began. Before me was a figure trying to look human, leaning against a wall, holding both hands, his face was covered by black pixels that moved from one side to the other, making it impossible to see his face.

After a moment of silence, some text boxes appeared at the top, and next to them, the same voice sample from moments ago.

“How bad do you think it is?”

“Deep cuts everywhere, it will take longer than expected.”

"Highly strung? Of course. Being here is depressing, every morning is imminent bad news for someone.”

But the phrase that left me thinking was: “Do you remember why it started?” I recognized the same question from my dream, I already felt a weight on my back, that caused me to feel more pressured.

The animation ended, and now the screen showed an extensive forest, Mega Man presented a different appearance, his blue colors had been changed to a gray tone, and his eyes were as if covered by his helmet.

I didn't have much time to appreciate it, since that same figure from a few moments ago also appeared, and the same darkness that chased me was now dragging her forward, which instinctively made me move forward to see if I could help her.

My attempt was in vain, that darkness increased its speed every second, until that figure disappeared from the screen. Once it happened, another fade to black would welcome me to the next level, if I can still call them that. It was the same hospital as before, but now there were lamps and spotlights hanging from the ceiling that were on. It was time to walk again, the walls had signs of deterioration, I even saw small bodies lying on the floor, if I wanted to move forward, I had to jump over them. In the previous level I had a feeling of curiosity mixed with skepticism, but seeing that put me on alert, the scenario transmitted great hostility to me.

Unexpectedly, I saw how all those bodies that were on the ground began to levitate and chase me, while making noises similar to moans of pain. As I ran to avoid being caught, I turned around to shoot them, but the amount of bodies accumulated was overwhelming, even slowing down the console.

Luckily, I came to another room with a door, and without thinking, I entered. A quick blink of white left me completely stunned, along with the sound of breaking glass.

Now they were showing up as shards of glass on the edges of my TV, and once again, text.

“In a few hours you will know if it is irremediable.”

“Why are you looking down? All is not lost.

But do you remember why it started?”

That question again. My stress was already at a very high point. At the end of that text, I appeared a short distance from the door that separates you from the boss of the level, and once I crossed, what was there was unexpected, but at the same time very unpleasant. On the wall was that figure from before, but tied with some kind of cables to the ceiling, his clothes were covered in dark red stains, and what made me go into a state of anger, he had pieces of glass stuck everywhere.

I got up to turn off the console, my head no longer had the endurance to see that. I looked up when I heard that phrase once again. “She's waiting…” I rubbed my eyes in an attempt to calm my state, it had affected me personally, but those words still kept me sane, as if with the hope of remembering.

When I resumed the game, the life bar of that thing was completed, showing me its name, which was more like letters abbreviating something: a TE, a P, and another T. It didn't give me a chance to get alert, it quickly attacked me with one of those wires, leaving me just one more hit away from losing a life.

In addition to using those cables as whips, small pieces of sharp glass came out of the sides to hurt me, I even saw how a wheel made of sharp glass was spinning around the floor, which made it much more complicated for me to counterattack.

It was an exercise in patience, because on rare occasions I was able to return the damage, it even made me lose one of the lives that I had cared for since I began this odyssey of emotions. Something I noticed as I was losing my life from what I was facing was that the emptier his bar was, the more pieces of glass were sticking into his body, even his unintelligible face became filled with them. I was barely able to defeat her without losing another life, I was once again one hit away from dying.

A flash covered the screen, the sound of a car abruptly braking came from the speakers, and the figure slowly fell to the ground. I didn't react at all, but I couldn't move either. I don't think I can describe how I felt. I just repeated in my already sore head the same phrase to not turn off the console, she was waiting for me.

It was a black screen, but now Mega Man was there, and I could move him. Every step he took made a sound effect, as if he were actually in a large dark room.

A door came out from the side, and even though I made an effort to hold my ground through, another part of me still hesitated. As soon as I knocked on the door, other text boxes, with the audio even more distorted than before.

“I like the night better, I can distract myself by watching those flashes of the sky fade away.”

“A few more months and you will see a new sparkle in his eyes.”

“Do you really feel that way?

“We’ve been through worse things before.”

“I had much to give you, if you would only remember why it began.”

Without warning he was in front of a reddish creature whose shape was similar to a person. He didn't move, but what caught my attention the most was his life bar, there was only one, he would die in a single hit.

I should have thought about attacking faster, that thing jumped towards Mega Man, taking another life from me without being able to react. Having only one chance to beat it, as soon as the text boxes finished and the creature appeared, I shot it. There was no death animation, it began to shrink until it disappeared.

The screen went black for a few seconds, and a pair of distorted eyes appeared and looked directly at me.

After a few awkward moments, several texts appeared.

“You had no idea that day would be your last, right? me neither."

“Isolating yourself won't solve things, you withdrew, blaming yourself.”

“You have lived buried for a long time in that moment, searching for the answer.”

“If you can't identify why it started, you'll end up doing something crazy.”

I couldn't hold it in anymore, I was tearing up, I almost reached the point of sobbing. I placed one of my hands on my face to clean myself, that weight I felt in my body now transformed into a sharp pain that shook my spine. I got up to lie down on my bed, but first, I grabbed one of my notebooks to write down everything I heard. Maybe if I keep going like this, I'll remember. The console is still on. But, everyone knows that for a cartridge to be inserted correctly, you must push it down and close the lid. I wasn't. Whether it was something of mine or not, it doesn't matter anymore. Before falling asleep, and repeating the day as many times as necessary, I could not stop feeling the sharp pain throughout my back, until I managed to see that bench once again, and its voice told me: “If only you were able to remember it..."